Dirty Little Secrets: A Stepbrother Romance (21 page)

S
alinas
, California is supposed to be the center of the California wine country. It’s situated in an area a few miles inland of the Big Sur coastline region, and is located in the middle of the biggest grape producing valley in California.

The reality of Salinas is that it’s a pretty poor area, actually. With lots of undocumented immigrants, migrant farm laborers, and not a lot of good schools, Salinas is a picturesque crap-hole of a town. Gangs and gang violence are always bubbling beneath the surface of the town, and even when I’d come up to do modeling shoots, my agency had been very specific about me being in and out of town during daylight hours only.

Still, driving down main street, the town looked pretty. “This place looks nice enough to me,” Rita said, looking around. “It looks like an old-fashioned small town.”

“Mostly,” Vince said. He pointed toward a store on his right. “But check out the wall on the corner there.”

I looked, seeing lots of spray-painted graffiti, and nodded. Indecipherable to me, it was still a clear sign that there was lots of violence in the area. “So what now?”

“Now, we put out the bait, let Sydney try and bite, and deliver him to Vince’s friends,” Kade said. “Then we go back for Dad’s service.”

“It was a nice touch that Layla, even when she was so angry, delayed the service so you could attend,” Vince said. “Just sayin’.”

“Well, I am his son, but yes, I agree.” Kade said. “Go ahead and park here. Rita, do you have a wireless signal?”

“Strong and clear,” she said. “What do you need?”

“Have you gotten any more updates on Syd’s location?”

“None. He’s gotten wise about Web usage, and that hit at the ATM certainly wasn’t him.”

Considering that the feed had shown a woman, I nodded at the understatement. “Probably another one of his targets,” I muttered. “So are you ready?”

Rita nodded and pulled out her cellphone. “It’s wirelessly linked to this computer, so I can upload it to his email without him getting my number. If he thinks he’s got security measures, he can’t even imagine what I’ve got going on here.”

I nodded and got out of the car, making sure that a large sign for Salinas was in the background. I looked in at Kade, who nodded and gave me a thumbs up. Time to go to work.

I’m not much of an actress, one of the reasons I never went in that direction, but it wasn’t hard to work up some tears and anger in my voice. After all, the bastard had blackmailed me, hit me, cheated on me, tried to either kill or rape me, and had certainly tried to kill Kade. When I was ready, I hit the record button on the phone.

“Syd, I tracked you down. You ruined my life, you son of a bitch, and I can’t take it anymore. Kade’s left me, my Mom hates me, I can’t work any longer . . . motherfucker, I can’t do it anymore. So, you win. You have my phone number, call me. Tell me how much it will take to get you off my back forever, get those files deleted, and get a new start on my life. Please, Syd.”

I shut off the camera and wiped at my eyes, quickly getting back into the car. Rita handed me a couple of tissues, and I blew my nose noisily. “Well, that’s certainly not dainty.”

“Can it, Vince,” Rita said, not even lifting her eyes from her computer as she typed. “Just make sure your boys are ready when Syd calls to set something up. He’s too arrogant not to.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Rita grinned and tapped the touchpad on the laptop. “Good boy. Now we wait.”

We didn’t have to wait long, Sydney must have had a phone notification or something set up on his email. My phone rang, and I looked. Syd. “Hello, Sydney.”

“So Alix, coming to your senses, are you?”

“I’m still not coming back to you, Sydney. I’d rather jump into the Pacific off Big Sur.”

Sydney’s evil laugh chilled me, and I had to resist hanging up right then. I wondered again, for perhaps the millionth time, how I could have fallen for Sydney.
“Alix, I don’t want a relationship with you anymore. I just want money, and perhaps some sugar. You think you can do that?”

“You still want to fuck me,” I said, a quick grin flashing across my features as Kade’s fists tightened in his lap in the front seat. “Fine. What the fuck ever. Get your fucking rocks off, as long as you delete the damn files. I want them all deleted, Syd. And you take down the videos of me and Kade from the websites you put them up on.”

“You know that won’t ensure they won’t pop up in the future.”

“It’s a start,” I said, letting him think I was deluded. It’s the Internet, once something hits it, it almost never comes off. I knew that very clearly. I grew up in modeling and in the Los Angeles area. “Where and when?”

“There’s a motel, just north of the Northridge Mall on Main Street. The Bluebird of Happiness. Meet me there in forty-five minutes. No car, you walk up and I’ll meet you in the parking lot. We can talk money and sugar then.”

The phone went dead in my ear, and I pulled it away, wiping at my ear like his words were some sort of infectious disease that I had to clean away. “Bluebird of Happiness motel, forty-five minutes from now,” I informed them, “and I’m supposed to be alone, no car.”

“Not a problem,” Vince said. “That sort of thing can be dealt with. Sydney will be looking for Kade, your BMW, stuff like that. A couple of guys hanging around will barely register on his radar. He’s a photographer, for crying out loud.”

“Good point,” Kade said. “Come on, let’s go.”

As it was, the motel was only about two blocks from the mall, so we decided to park there. On the way, Vince called his contact, informing him of the conversation between Syd and myself. He spoke quickly, then hung up. “They’re going to meet us in the Disney Store of the mall with time to spare.”

“Disney store? Really?” I asked. “What the hell for, someone needs a pair of Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas?”

“Probably because they don’t think Sydney would have anyone there who would tip him off,” Rita said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Vince said, glancing in the rearview mirror.

“Okay, so what now?” I asked.

Kade grabbed a hat and pair of non-prescription eyeglasses, slipping them on. It didn’t take away much from his physical presence, but it did obscure his face. “Let’s go. Sydney doesn’t know Vince or Rita, so you two can follow behind more closely than I can. I’ll be in the mall, maybe a store or two away. You guys can call me if you need help.”

We split up, taking different routes into the mall. I saw Rita and Vince holding hands and looking like any other young couple when I turned around on the escalator like I was looking around, although I wondered if Vince was able to focus as much as Kade would have wanted. His face wore such a stupidly happy look. Then again, I guessed I wore the same expression a lot, based off of the way Mom looked at me the night before at dinner.

Inside the Disney Store, I stood close to the DVD sales rack, pretending to decide whether I should choose between the re-issue of
Aladdin
or if perhaps
Big Hero 6
was more my taste. I checked my watch and saw that I had only fifteen minutes to make Sydney’s deadline, and I was about to go when a conservative-looking man in chinos and a jean jacket came up to me. “Nice choice. I have a nephew who is nuts over the Avengers though.”

“Thanks. But I’m shopping for a young child.”

“Good to know,” he said. “So shall we go? I believe we only have twelve minutes to make your deadline.”

I nodded, and we turned to leave. I caught Rita out of the corner of my eye and she nodded slightly, her and Vince leaving soon after. As the man and I headed toward the exit, he spoke quietly. “I hope that Vince and the girl with him don’t follow us the whole way. I already have men at the motel, they’re waiting to move as soon as Sydney shows his face. They’re not even worried about getting a confession or evidence; our connection within the LAPD tells us they already have a slam-dunk case of blackmail and extortion on him.”

“And once he’s arrested?”

“No offense Miss Nova, but you don’t strike me as the type of person who wants the details about what will happen to him. At least, not if you want to sleep at night.”

“Fine,” I said. “And if things go bad?”

“My men are used to this stuff. Sydney’s an amateur. If we had the evidence we have now, we’d have done this a long time ago.”

We were at the corner, and I could see a Denny’s with four motorcycles parked outside, along with men who looked a lot like my escort. “Your boys?”

“Just the distraction, in case Hale’s got his own backup. My real boys are already in position.”

I saw the sign for the Bluebird of Happiness ahead, and my escort nodded. “There. I’m peeling off now. I’ll be there though. Relax, and best of luck.”

I looked around as I walked, seeing that Rita and Vince had disappeared from sight, although I thought I could see Kade in his hat and glasses about a hundred yards behind me on the other side of the street. Taking a deep breath, I finished walking toward the motel. Turning into the parking lot, I looked around for the main office.

I was halfway toward it when a horn beeped behind me, and Sydney waved from a car that was pulling into the driveway. I squinted, pretending not to see who it was, and he beeped again. Playing dumb, I looked around like I was blocking his path, and stepped back and out of the way, across the lot from him. I wanted him out of his car, and whoever might be in there from being able to intervene. It was a ploy, but one that I hoped would be effective.

Thankfully, it worked. “Get over here, you dumb bitch,” Syd said, opening his door and getting halfway out. “Jesus, you are as stupid as you are hot.”

Things went tremendously fast then. Three men, clear bikers from their clothing, stepped out of the bushes and the area surrounding Sydney’s car. Two of them were carrying pistols while another racked a pump-action shotgun. “Hello, Syd.”

Sydney looked around and recognized the weapons pointed at him, if not the men. He turned to me and growled. “Really?”

I nodded. “Really. Have fun in jail, Sydney.”

Two of the men, the one with the shotgun and the pistol toter closest to Sydney, pulled him out of his car and dragged him off. The other pistol toter climbed into the still-running Honda and closed the door, driving off. Less than fifteen seconds had passed, and I turned around, heading back toward the mall before someone from the motel office could step out.

As I did, I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. With that weight lightening, I started to walk faster, then faster.

Eventually, when I saw Kade walking toward me, I began to run.

T
he skies were overcast
, a rarity for California at that time of the year. Being a relatively famous man, Derek Prescott’s interning had drawn quite a crowd, from lawyers at his firm to community groups that he’d worked with to even some media, who were covering the last chapter of a very dramatic death.

Kade was finally starting to show some real emotion, and it was nice to see. He’d shown some here and there, but now he was really letting it all out as the reality sank in. I think he’d held most of his grief in until the whole Syd situation was taken care of. But I didn’t say a word, I just held his hand and stood by his side.

Derek’s will had requested that he be cremated, which had been done while Kade was still in the hospital. The cause of death had been a massive heart attack, but in a note that had eased my mind, the report said that the attack had begun even before Derek had taken the podium. That he had dropped at the particular moment he did was just pure chance.

Still, I could feel hundreds of eyes on me and Kade as we stood next to each other in our black suits, our eyes hidden behind sunglasses. Mom wore black as well, with a veil over her face instead of sunglasses, next to me. When I reached over at one point at the graveside to hold her hand, she took it, squeezing tightly as the minister continued on.

When the service was over, we went to the ocean, putting Derek’s ashes into a small radio-controlled boat. Layla passed the controls to Kade, who sent the boat out into the ocean. With a full charge of its battery and specially designed system that would keep the craft going in a straight line after it lost contact with the radio controller, it would be three to four miles out into the Pacific before it sank.

“Thank you for coming,” Mom said as we walked away. I struggled in the loose sand with my high heels, but sandals would have been inappropriate for the occasion. “So how long are you staying?”

“We’re going back to Portland tomorrow,” Kade said. “Layla, thank you for having us.”

“It was the right thing to do. He’s your father, and you two were always close,” Mom said. “I was wrong, and I’m glad you forgave me for that.”

“Thank you for forgiving our deception, and for accepting Kade and me,” I said, giving Mom’s hand another squeeze. “Are you going to be okay?”

Mom nodded. “I guess. I don’t think I’ll be keeping the Laguna house though. It’s just too big and has too many memories. I still can’t go into my bedroom without crying. I’ve been sleeping in the living room on the couch most of the time.”

“So what are you going to do?” Kade asked. “Stay in California?”

Mom shrugged. “Maybe. I still have a lot of friends around here, and I’m too damn young to retire to Florida or Arizona.”

“What about coming up to Portland?” I asked. “You’d have family, and it’d be nice to get to spoil my little sibling.”

Mom smiled, then shook her head. “No, Oregon isn’t for me either. But I do promise Alix, I’ll visit, and I hope you two will do the same.”

“
H
ey Kade
? It’s time.”

I looked up from between my knees, where my hands had been dangling. Vince was standing in the doorway, his tuxedo fitting him well. I checked my cuffs one last time and stood up, taking a deep breath. “I have no idea why I’m so damn nervous.”

“I do,” Vince replied, with a smile. “Let’s face it, you’re worried about fucking it up.”

I laughed and shrugged. “Maybe,” I said, looking as Vince shifted and reached down, adjusting himself. “Vince, are you really wearing that thing today?”

“Rita didn’t tell me to take it off,” Vince explained simply with a small grin. “And despite you paying my paychecks, she outranks you in certain areas.”

“I should have said something to her. She’s just that kind of woman,” I said, then laughed. “Which is probably why you love her. So did you ask her?”

“At the reception,” Vince said. “I’ve just got to make sure I give you the right ring for your part. Right pocket Kade, left pocket Rita.”

“Good man,” I said. “So you’ll be able to handle the office while we’re gone?”

“Of course,” Vince said. “Rita is amazing, even better than Monica was. She even keeps the new secretary in line with barely a glance.”

I laughed and shook my head. “I need to ask Rita, because we both know she’s going to be the boss for the next three weeks. Just promise me one thing. No whips in the office.”

“Don’t worry, boss. Rita will obey your orders, you know that.”

We left the small waiting room in the back of the church and headed toward the front. Just as we reached the double doors to the sanctuary, Rita came running around the corner in her bridesmaid dress. “Kade!”

“Slow down, Rita,” I said, catching her before she could slip and fall. “What’s wrong?”

Rita’s grin reassured me as she shook her head. “Nothing. Just . . . Alix asked me to give this to you.”

The envelope was on the church’s stationery, and I wondered what it was. “This couldn’t wait until afterwards?”

“No, sir. She said that I had to deliver it to you before you went into the sanctuary.”

I nodded and gave Rita a quick squeeze and kiss on the top of her head before glancing at Vince. He shrugged and I unfolded the flap, looking at the single sheet inside. “You read this, Rita?”

She shook her head. “No, I was there when she wrote it.”

“So this isn’t a surprise to you.”

She shook her head again and grinned. “Go on, Kade, open it. I promise, you’ll like it.”

I couldn’t wait any longer, so I took out the single sheet of paper and unfolded it. In Alix’s clear, graceful hand was a short note.

My dearest Kade, my Lord and soon to be husband,

Before you go into the sanctuary, I wanted you to know that we’ve gotten a gift a bit earlier than I’d expected, but am no less happy for.

It seems that I may have to delay going to college for another semester. I know that you and I were both excited about that, but I’m not going to be able to finish the first year.

Kade, in addition to our little brother being born in the next few months, we’re going to have a new member of our family by the time the Fourth of July comes around.

I’m pregnant.

“Boss, what’s wrong?” Vince asked as I blinked, wiping at my eyes. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”

“I’m going to be a father,” I whispered, looking at Vince and then Rita. “Alix is pregnant.”

Rita’s beaming grin and Vince’s nod of happiness gave me assurance, and Vince clapped me on the back. “Well then, Dad, let’s make sure this baby is started off right, with a loving mother and father that are properly married.”

“Then we get to explain that his uncle, who’s less than a year older than him, is also his cousin,” Rita said with glee. “Can I do that job?”

“Of course, Aunt Rita,” I said, smiling. “Vince is right. Rita, I’ll see you inside.”

Vince and I went into the sanctuary, where the small gathering was already seated. While we’d only invited fifty people, it was a pretty high-profile society event, with three NBA players, an NFL pro-bowler, and one each from the WNBA, MLB, and NHL. And of course, more than holding her own, was Layla. “Hey, Mom,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Have a read, you’ll love it.”

Layla looked at the envelope and nodded, her belly swelling hugely underneath her dress. She was living in Sunnyvale, much closer to us than before, and had found herself a nice house in a gated community. We’d visited a few times, and she was moving on. At least, she wasn’t crying at night any more. “Thanks. Now go get married, okay?”

I grinned and took my place at the front of the sanctuary, next to the altar. “Ready, son?” the minister asked. I nodded. “Then let’s begin.”

The organ music started up, and the bridesmaids made their way in. First was Karla McDonald, who’d flown in from Australia especially for the event after making the cover of
Vogue
for the second time just the month before. She and Alix had patched up their friendship. I was glad she was there.

Next was Rita as the maid of honor, her confident walk and demeanor causing heads to turn even away from the beautiful model that had preceded her.

The organ music changed again, and the classic Wedding March started up. I watched in anticipation as Alix came into the doorway, resplendent in her white satin dress. The long train dragged from her waist, allowing her soft, glowing skin to show through the thin lace on the back. As Alix walked, she rubbed her tummy and smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“My Lord, my Kade,” she whispered as she came up.

“My Queen,” I answered, using the new name I’d told her about. “Ready?”

Alix nodded and we both turned to the minister. The ceremony itself went like you’d expect, and to be honest I didn’t remember much of it. All I do remember, after the kiss, was stopping to hug Layla, who had heaved herself out of her seat to stand through the ceremony. She patted my cheek and kissed both of us.

“Your father would be very proud,” she said. “Of both of you.”

“I love you, Mom,” Alix said. “So much.”

“I love you too, honey. And you, Kade.”

I hugged Layla again and turned to Alix, who’d turned her head to say something to Rita. As she was turned, I saw the tattoo on her left shoulder blade, visible through the lace of her dress, that had become her trademark and her symbol.

A white rose, rimmed in red. A symbol of royalty, a symbol of a queen.

A Tudor Rose.

My Tudor Rose
.